Bouche’s walk-off blast lifts East Carolina to series win over George Mason

by | Feb 15, 2025

By ECUPirates.com

East Carolina found itself trailing George Mason by a handful of runs in the middle innings Saturday afternoon, but a Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium crowd of 4,587 was treated to quite the comeback as Alex Bouche’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the ninth polished off a 4-3 victory in the series rubber game.

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The Pirate pitching staff surrendered just one hit the entire day, but baseball is a game of inches, and the home side fell behind 3-0 before scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth frames to earn a richly deserved win.

Freshman righty Sean Jenkins turned in a nice 5.2-inning effort in his first collegiate appearance, limiting the Patriots to a pair of unearned runs and the lone base hit. He also struck out two. Jackson DiLorenzo (2-0) was the winning pitcher for the second consecutive day, covering the final inning, while Cole Egan (0-1) was saddled with the loss after allowing one earned run on one hit in 1.1 frames.

Alex Peltier notched two hits, a run scored and an RBI thanks in part to his first collegiate home run. As for the visitors, James Quinn-Irons produced a long ball in the top of the fourth that represented George Mason’s only base knock of the contest.

Following a leadoff walk in the top of the first, an error on the infield put the Patriots in business with runners at first and second with no outs. A double steal would put them both in scoring position before two groundouts resulted in runs that left George Mason with a 2-0 cushion through one complete inning.

Quinn-Irons cleared the batter’s eye in center to lead off the fourth, increasing his team’s advantage to three, but the ECU bullpen locked it down from there and set the stage for the rally.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the fifth before Dixon Williams reached on a fielding error to score Nick Parham. Colby Wallace then doubled to right center to begin the home half of the sixth and scored on a double play to cut the Pirate deficit to 3-2.

With two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the seventh, Peltier fell behind 0-2 but connected on the very next pitch and drove it into the trees in left center for the game-tying tally. DiLorenzo was then able to strand a pair of Patriot runners in the top of the ninth, setting the stage for Bouche’s heroics. The transfer shortstop from Old Dominion wasted little time, taking an 0-2 pitch over the right field wall to send East Carolina home a series winner.

Postgame Notes Graphic

  • The Pirates have won three-straight Opening Weekend series, sweeping both George Washington (2023) and Rider (2024) before taking two of three from George Mason.
  • The East Carolina pitching staff held George Mason to a .140 team batting average in the three-game set while allowing just three hits combined in the second and third contests.
  • Peltier, Bouche and Austin Irby all registered their first home runs in a Pirate uniform over the weekend.
  • George Mason was 0-for-3 with runners on scoring position and 0-for-8 with runners on base.
  • Head Coach Cliff Godwin increased his career wins total to 399, just 28 away from matching Gary Overton for the most in program history.

Up Next: ECU makes its traditional early-season trip over to Buies Creek Tuesday (Feb. 18) for a midweek game versus Campbell. First pitch at Jim Perry Stadium is scheduled for 5 p.m.

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